Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T17:32:44.875Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Measuring Gubernatorial Budgetary Power: A New Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Yanna Krupnikov  and
Charles Shipan
Yanna Krupnikov*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
Charles Shipan
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
*
Yanna Krupnikov, Department of Political Science, Northwestern University, Scott Hall, 601 University Place, Evanston, IL 60208, USA Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Numerous scholars have considered the relationship between gubernatorial power and political outcomes. In fact, gubernatorial power has been used as a key explanatory factor in analyses of topics such as gubernatorial approval, divided government, regulation, and even individual political behavior. The key to these studies is the precision with which scholars can measure gubernatorial power and many such studies rely on the Formal Powers Index (FPI)—a measure maintained by Beyle. In this article, we reconsider these commonly used power scores in three parts. First, we argue and show that FPI suffers from a key measurement error that is particularly problematic in analyses of time-series data. Second, we present a new approach to estimating gubernatorial power and explain how this approach deals with the measurement errors in the FPI. Finally, we use our new scores to replicate a study that originally relied on the FPI to analyze the effect of gubernatorial power. Given the prevalence of the FPI in the existing literature, our results have key implications for the study of the effects of gubernatorial power.

Keywords

gubernatorial powermeasurement
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 438 - 455
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abney, G., and Lauth, T. P.. 1998. “The End of Executive Dominance in State Appropriations.” Public Administration Review 58 (5): 388–94..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alt, James E. and Lowry, Robert C.. 2000. “A Dynamic Model of State Budget Outcomes under Divided Partisan Government.” The Journal of Politics 62:1035–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrilleaux, Charles, and Berkman, Michael. 2003. “Do Governors Matter? Budgeting Rules and the Politics of State Policymaking.” Political Research Quarterly 5:409–17.Google Scholar
Beyle, Thad L. 2007. “Gubernatorial Power: The Institutional Power Ratings for the 50 Governors of the United States.” University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill. http://www.unc.edu/~beyle/gubnewpwr.htmlGoogle Scholar
Beyle, Thad, and Ferguson, Margaret. 2008. “Governors and the Executive Branch.” In Politics in the American States. 9th ed., eds. Gray, and Hanson, . Washington, DC: CQ Press, 192–228.Google Scholar
Bowman, Ann, and Woods, Neal D.. 2007. Strength in Numbers: Why States Join Interstate Compacts” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 7:347–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, David. 1988. Critical Elections and Congressional Policymaking. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Carey, John M., Niemi, Richard G., and Powell, Lynda W.. 2000. Term Limits in the State Legislatures. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, Wes 1998. Divided Government and Budget Conflict in the U.S. States.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 23:5–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clucas, Richard A. 2007. Legislative Professionalism and the Power of State House Leaders.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 7:1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Jacob 1992. “A Power Primer.” Psychological Bulletin 112:155–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, Gary W, and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 1993. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Daley, Dorothy M, Haider-Markel, Donald P, and Whitford, Andrew B. 2007. “Checks, Balances, and the Cost of Regulation: Evidence from the American States.” Political Research Quarterly 60:696–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dometrius, Nelson. 1979. Measuring Gubernatorial Power.” The Journal of Politics 41:589–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dometrius, Nelson. 2002. “Gubernatorial approval and administrative influence.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 2:251–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, Margaret. 2003. “Chief Executive Success in the Legislative Arena.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 3:158–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, Wayne. 1989. The Legislative Committee Game. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Huber, John D., Shipan, Charles R., and Pfahler, Madelaine. 2001. “Legislatures and Statutory Control of Bureaucracy” American Journal of Political Science 45:330–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelleher, Christine A. and Wolak, Jennifer. 2007. “Explaining Public Confidence in the Branches of State Government” Political Research Quarterly 60:707–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lauth, Thomas. 1986. “The Executive Budget in Georgia” State & Local Government Review 18:56–64.Google Scholar
Jerome, Maddox H. W.. 2005. “The Institutional Implications of Outside Careers: Delegation, Legislator Goals, and Leadership Power.” Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association. Oakland, CA.Google Scholar
Miller, Edward 2006. “Explaining Incremental and Non-Incremental Change: Medicaid Nursing Facility Reimbursement Policy, 1980-98.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 6:117–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxley, Zoe M. and Fox, Richard L.. 2004. “Women in Executive Office: Variation Across American States.” Political Research Quarterly 57:113–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reisinger, Tyler. 2008. “Beyond Beyle: Assessing the Measurement of Institutional and Informal Gubernatorial Powers.” MA Thesis.Google Scholar
Rudolph, Thomas. 2003. Institutional Context and the Assignment of Political Responsibility” The Journal of Politics 65:190–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryu, Jay, Bowling, Cynthia, Cho, Chung-Lae, and Wright, Deil S.. 2008. “Exploring Explanations of State Agency Budgets: Institutional Budget Actors or Exogenous Environment” Public Budgeting & Finance 28(Fall): 3:23–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlesinger, Joseph A. 1965. “The Politics of the Executive,” In Politics in the American States, eds. Jacob, Herbert and Vines, Kenneth N.. Boston: Little Brown.Google Scholar
Svoboda, Craig 1995. “Retrospective Voting in Gubernatorial Elections: 1982 and 1986” Political Research Quarterly 48:135–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, Neil, and Bowman, Ann O'M.. 2011. “Blurring Borders: The Effect of Federal Activism on Interstate Cooperation” American Politics Research 39:859–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Krupnikov and Shipan supplementary material

Web Appendix 1

Download Krupnikov and Shipan supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 105.4 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Krupnikov and Shipan supplementary material

Web Appendix 2: NASBO Coding

Download Krupnikov and Shipan supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 68 KB